The competition in Soul&Spirit magazine.

earthair

[As there is no Oracle Deck creation forum, I'm putting this thread here!]

Has anyone else seen this?
http://www.soulandspiritmagazine.com/win-design-your-own-oracle-deck/

I'm not sure whether this is worth doing because it seems like yet another instance of people taking advantage of artists- 'give us all your hard work for free so we can give you 'exposure' :rolleyes:

If I had 45 oracle images ready I'd self publish them, not sign over the publishing rights to someone else...for 2 years!!!! (How exactly is the artist supposed to benefit from any of the exposure??!!) Nowhere does it say the artist would have any control over the backs, format, size, quality etc of these 200 decks which the artist would 'win' :mad:
 

Zephyros

Well, it does say that you get 200 decks, so I assume you can sell them. I don't know what they would do with the rights for two years, though.
 

gregory

Wouldn't touch it. Now if there were a MONEY prize as well, I might. But I agree - they want to piggyback on your work to make a profit., NOT COOL.

I wouldn't sign away my rights either - but they MAY not mean exclusive rights, I guess. A two-year licence could just mean they get to publish as many as they like over the two years - but you might be able to put your own out as well... And you WOULD have 200 copies to sell. I would rather have mine as POD though - no lost investment or 200 decks sitting in a corner annoying me !
 

earthair

Well, it does say that you get 200 decks, so I assume you can sell them. I don't know what they would do with the rights for two years, though.

But they will be giving away the deck with the magazine...so it'll be hard to sell them for any more than the cost of the magazine, which won't even cover postage?

And they say the cards will come in 'packaging' so the winner just gets 200 sets of cards and still has to sort out the issue of boxes/bags for a size and format which they will have no control over.

Anyway I'm tempted to submit 5 pithy memes about artists not working for free as my submitted jpgs :D
 

Zephyros

Well, sometimes exposure isn't a dirty word. Depending on how popular the magazine is, it just might be a way to open doors to budding artists. The deck would reach all the subscribers of the magazine plus the two hundred you have yourself. Many self-published decks don't reach nearly that many people.

It ultimately depends on the size of the venue. If I offered a musician to play at my seedy bar that sits ten people for the exposure, that really would be asking them to work for free. But if I offered a band that was practicing in a garage the chance to play Carnegie Hall they would be foolish to refuse because that actually does constitute a great deal of exposure. So what is this magazine, a seedy bar or Carnegie Hall? Does it have as many subscribers as TIME or as many as a small neighborhood pamphlet?
 

earthair

Well, sometimes exposure isn't a dirty word. Depending on how popular the magazine is, it just might be a way to open doors to budding artists. The deck would reach all the subscribers of the magazine plus the two hundred you have yourself. Many self-published decks don't reach nearly that many people.

It ultimately depends on the size of the venue. If I offered a musician to play at my seedy bar that sits ten people for the exposure, that really would be asking them to work for free. But if I offered a band that was practicing in a garage the chance to play Carnegie Hall they would be foolish to refuse because that actually does constitute a great deal of exposure. So what is this magazine, a seedy bar or Carnegie Hall? Does it have as many subscribers as TIME or as many as a small neighborhood pamphlet?

Giving away artistic work of any genre, be it art, music or writing, only leads to more people expecting you to give away your time and hard studied talent for free. It NEVER leads to paid work. It also devalues the work of other professionals who then get undercut or forced to go and do other jobs to meet ends meet, which leads to lesser quality art/music being produced as the amateurs are the only people doing anything which gets 'exposure'.

Professional artists and musicians everywhere shout obscenities at the screen when they see the word 'exposure'. Did you not look at the links to the memes which I posted Zephyros?!

This competition is a cynical exploitation of artists. The winner should be offered financial payment, or maybe a percentage of the takings for that issue, plus they get to keep their licensing. The magazine will be financially benefiting and getting exposure so why shouldn't the artist get paid?
 

reall

Wouldn't touch it. Now if there were a MONEY prize as well, I might. But I agree - they want to piggyback on your work to make a profit., NOT COOL.

I wouldn't sign away my rights either - but they MAY not mean exclusive rights, I guess. A two-year licence could just mean they get to publish as many as they like over the two years - but you might be able to put your own out as well... And you WOULD have 200 copies to sell. I would rather have mine as POD though - no lost investment or 200 decks sitting in a corner annoying me !
agree 100%!^^ as much as I luv games and competition I prefer MONEY and POD!^^ lolz ;)) would be more happy with 1deck for me and submitting 1 or few cards from my portfolio for promo! asking someone to work for free on full deck and give up all copyright for 0 cash is beyond ridiculous! and deserve severe spitting/in best case scenario!^^XD
never underestimate amateur hobby artist!XD XP ;))
 

earthair

Update... there's an oracle deck free with the new issue. Is it the winner of the competition?

I'm really sorry if the artist is someone here, but I have to be honest, it just looks like someone took some random cropped photos from a single painting and called it an oracle deck.
 

MaeWasteland

Update... there's an oracle deck free with the new issue. Is it the winner of the competition?

I'm really sorry if the artist is someone here, but I have to be honest, it just looks like someone took some random cropped photos from a single painting and called it an oracle deck.

Yeah, I got that one, and I tend to agree. There's also, unless I missed it, no mention in the magazine of it, let alone any guidance on how to use it, which strikes me as odd, even if many of the readers of the mag are regular users of oracle decks, there will probably be just as many who aren't and who look at it, look at the tiny, not very nice-feeling cards and think 'meh, is this what oracle decks are like?? I also don't think the box has an artist name on it, so much for exposure - though I'd assume if it was a contest winner there would have been some mention somewhere in the magazine, mags usually like to blare on about contest winners!

I got this copy as the second of three in a 3 issues for £5 offer, and I don't think I'll be continuing the subscription.
 

Symphony

I have the latest issue too, glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's just the same painting cropped at different angles. I've got a couple of decks from this magazine, curiousity over them was what made me buy the magazines, and I doubt they are the best way for artists to get their work out, the decks are basically selling for pennies